Ayush doctors may get nod to practice at primary health centre

The Group of Secretaries to PM has backed the radical proposal to allow Ayurvedic, Homeopathic and Unani practitioners to practice at primary health care.Anubhuti Vishnoi | ET Bureau | March 22, 2016, 08:33 IST

NEW DELHI: The Group of Secretaries to PM has backed the radical proposal to allow Ayurvedic, Homeopathic and Unani practitioners to practice at primary health care level and the Centre has already begun moving the wheels.

In a presentation made before the prime minister last month, the Group of Secretaries has proposed a “Bridge course for Ayush practitioners for primary healthcare” and has given a rather ambitious timeline — aiming at churning out three lakh such versatile practitioners in three years’ time.

The health ministry has already worked out an MoU for a bridge course with IGNOU — signed last week — to allow Ayush (Ayurveda, Yoga & Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homoeopathy) practitioners as well as nurses to operate at primary health care level and is in discussion with the Medical Council of India to also get clearances to allow them to ultimately prescribe allopathic medicines.

“We have already worked out the modalities for the bridge course with IGNOU to enable Ayush practitioners to operate at primary health care level — so now states will be able to take up these courses.

As far as the question of allowing them to prescribe allopathic medicines is concerned, this is something that will require the approval of the Medical Council of India and that is still under discussion,” a senior official from the health ministry confirmed to ET on condition of anonymity.

The Indian Medical Association (IMA) is strongly opposed to allowing Ayush doctors into the modern medicine system. The Department of Ayush which has been strongly advocating the switchover for practitioners to medicine prescription confirmed to ET that all efforts are on to get this through.

“It is an important decision which will help reach medical assistance to the remotest areas but also may have long term effects on the practice of medicine. We are in advanced discussions with the health ministry and hope to find a good solution to this issue,” a senior official from the Ayush department told ET. As per the IMA, while the Doctor Population Ratio as per WHO norms should be 1:1000, in India it is 1:1674 indicating that there is overall shortage of doctors in the country which is more pronounced in rural areas.

The IMA quotes MCI figures to state that the total number of doctors in India as on 30.09.2014 is 9.32 lakh while there are 6,86319 Ayush practitioners. One of the eight group of secretaries created on orders of PM Narendra Modi in January 2016, the group on ‘Education and Health – Universal Access and Quality’ has recommended this to address the challenges that arise due to the shortage of doctors and health providers in the country.

Noting the ‘persisting public health challenges of anemia, malnutrition, pneumonia, diarrohoea, communicable diseases besides the ‘challenges of new lifestyle diseases’ together with the shortage of doctors, the Group of Secretaries has recommended that a bridge course be offered to Ayush practitioners to enable them to at least give basic health treatment to the needy at the grassroots level.

Its other recommendations are to increase professor student ratio to 1:3 for post graduation level aiming at creating 5,000 seats in 2016, weightage for rural experience in PG admissions, mandatory common MBBS/PG entrance exam, tele doctors through call centres with one such centre in each state in one year and decision support system for doctors in the form of e-doctors.

Dr A Marthanda Pillai, president of the Indian Medical Association, said that the body was exploring all options on the Ayush issue. “We are strongly opposed to it and have shared our view with the health minister. We are very clear that modern medicine cannot be packed Ayush practitioners.

In Maharashtra, we have already moved court against the move to allow homeopathy doctors to prescribe modern medicines after a bridge course,” Pillai told ET. Dr VD Tembhurnikar, Secretary General of the National Integrated Medical Association (NIMA) that represents the Indian System of Medicines graduates, argues that the opposition was only depriving the really needy people from medical assistance “IMA has been opposing this very strongly but the fact is they should look for the health facilities for the needy and poor.

IMA people chose to go for specialisation and super specialisation after MBBS, while our graduates are the ones who reach the slums, tribal areas, rural masses and even naxal hit areas. There is also a big dearth of the general physician especially at the primary health care level.

Only last month we submitted a memorandum to the health minister on the issue and he assured us of a good solution. In fact we are opposed to any bridge course because our syllabus for the ISM — through the Central Council of Indian Medicine is very comprehensive and already covers these aspects,” Tembhurnikar told ET.

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